Brooklyn's Dodgers: The Bums, the Borough, and the Best of Baseball, 1947–1957

Carl E. Prince

Abstract

This book captures the intensity of the Brooklyn Dodgers' relationship to its community in the 1950s. Ethnic and racial tensions were part and parcel of a working-class borough; the Dodgers' presence smoothed the rough edges of ghetto conflict always present in Brooklyn. The Dodger-inspired baseball program provided a path for boys that occasionally led to the prestigious Dodger Rookie Team, and sometimes, via minor-league contracts, to Ebbets Field itself. Women were tied to the Dodgers no less than their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons, but they were less visible. A few, such as Pulitz ... More

This book captures the intensity of the Brooklyn Dodgers' relationship to its community in the 1950s. Ethnic and racial tensions were part and parcel of a working-class borough; the Dodgers' presence smoothed the rough edges of ghetto conflict always present in Brooklyn. The Dodger-inspired baseball program provided a path for boys that occasionally led to the prestigious Dodger Rookie Team, and sometimes, via minor-league contracts, to Ebbets Field itself. Women were tied to the Dodgers no less than their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons, but they were less visible. A few, such as Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Marianne Moore and working-class super-fan Hilda Chester, were regulars at Ebbets Field and far from invisible. The author explores the underside of the Dodgers—the “baseball Annies,” and the paternity suits that went with the territory. The Dodgers' male culture was played out in the team's politics, in the owners' manipulation of Dodger male egos, opponents' race-baiting, and the macho bravado of the team (how Jackie Robinson, for instance, would prod Giants' catcher Sal Yvars to impotent rage by signaling him when he was going to steal second base, then taunting him from second after the steal). The day in 1957 when Walter OʼMalley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, announced that the team would be leaving for Los Angeles was one of the worst moments in baseball history, and a sad day in Brooklyn's history as well.

End Matter

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